Public School Videos
Recruiting Our Children to Islam
Part I
To prove I’m not taking it out of context, this is a longer version.
The video begins with six pages of facts, giving our children the impression that its an accurate video. It describes how Islam "gained" new territory. These are some excerpts. I have had to add a lot of text to show it in context.
Progress. Industry. In some countries Islam is the inspiration for every aspect for political life (calling to prayer in background) as in Arabia where the king is also the prime minister and commander and chief of the army and where the soul source of the law is the Quran, where and how God, whose prophet is Muhammad, as he revealed himself to man. Where did this civilization begin? (prayer calling in background continues)
[geography edit]
It is here, at Sanna, the capital of Yemen, that we can visualize what the towns of this old civilization were like. By themselves, these palaces of stone reveal the originality of the settled countries of the south. Proud of their strength and their traditions, here can be learned something of the golden age of the southern Arabia, before the coming of the prophet, between 7th century BC and 2nd century AD
["before the coming of the prophet" is used twice as a time mark. Much is written about virtues, generosity, etc.]
After six pages of facts:
It was in this region in the city of Mecca in 570 AD that a boy was born into the Bani-Hashim family of the Quraysh clan. He was named Muhammad, an ordinary child like any other child.
Muhammad lost his father, Abdul, and his mother, Amina very early in childhood. He was raised first by his grandfather, Abdul Muttalib, and then by his uncle, Abu Talib. It was believed that Muhammad was sent to a nomadic tribe to be raised according to his clan’s tradition in the desert. Like this child, like these Bedouin children, the young orphan was carrying on responsibilities like other boys of the Bedouin tribes, looking after animals and performing other duties.
pause and music
(fresh start voice, seems spliced) Young Muhammad was looking after the animals on the hillside where two angels appeared in a golden cloud and took hold of him. With secret gestures, they reached to his chest and washed his heart from a golden goblet. This action placed in him the breath of God.
[rich art paintings are shown...no qualifiers...if Christians tried to slip anything like this, in the same manner about Jesus to explain Christianity, heads would roll]
Muhammad passed most of his youth here, close to the route which caravans took to carry the goods leaving Mecca for the north. The caravan traders of Mecca controlled the routes to the Mediterranean. It is believed that Muhammad, with his uncle, Abu Talib, a merchant, traveled along the caravan routes to the north and to Syria.
Through the years the caravan routes from Mecca led Muhammad out of the limits of the Arabian peninsula into the Mediterranean where at that time, not only trade was spreading, but also the great ideas were at hand, the ideas of Christianity and monotheism, to startling doctrine of one and only God.
[Kids have got to be confused, the "God" they know is not Allah of this video]
Muhammad talked to rabbis, monks and Christian merchants and learned about Christianity and of Hebrew doctrine and of the final day of judgment.
In Muhammad’s time, hermits lived in caves throughout the (Heb-jons). Later on, Muslim tradition would say that these Arab hermits foreshadowed what was to come. They were early followers of monotheism which would become the true religion.
[true religion? I can’t remember Christianity or any other religion referred to as true...]
At age 25, Muhammad was a young merchant whose wisdom and honesty had already won him the nickname, al-’Amin, the trustworthy. He was unlettered but sophisticated. Khadijah, a rich merchant widow had heard of Muhammad. She asked his cooperation. Muhammad led her caravan to Syria and brought back goods to be sold in Mecca. Khadijah heard admiration from the other and more experienced caravan members [unclear]. From a friend, Khadijah proposed to marry the young Muhammad. She was 15 years older than he. Khadijah became his wife.
Thus Muhammad gained an important position, but wealth and business could not satisfy his concern about religions. He seeks a deeper meaning for his society and God, the concept of Allah, the one and only. Muhammad felt the need to find solitude. Often, he climbed to a small cave amongst the rocks of Mount Hira, just north of Mecca, fasting and meditating in order to get close to his God. In the light of what he had learned, the old pagan idols of Arabia looked shameful.
pause
One night, in the middle of the month of Ramadan, the moment of revelation came. The arch angel Gabriel appeared to Muhammad, a blinding vision of thunder and light that frightened him to his knees, and said to him, "RECITE."
[Just like the textbooks only this time with compelling music and rich art, not one word like "Muslims believe"]
Muhammad heard the angels commanding him three times, "RECITE in the name of Allah, who created man from a clot, who teacheth man that which he knew not." Muhammad quietly replied, "but I do not know how to recite." Muhammad, deeply troubled in fear and trembling at his destiny, brought himself out of the mountain. He questioned himself, "Would I be the same as one of those clairvoyants who finds lost animals?" He returned home bewildered to his wife who calmed him and was first to believe Muhammad was to lead his people to the right path.
[still no qualifiers...]
pause
For three years after this day, Muhammad returned to Mount Hira and the revelation continued. It was clear to him that the voice was the messenger of Allah, the supreme being, the God of Jews and Christians, the creator of everything, the creator of stars in the sky, mountains and seas, moon and heaven and MAN, who must appear before Allah on the final day of judgment.
[the God of the Jews and Christians is NOT Allah, as evidenced by mass graves]
pause
At the time, the Ka’aba was dedicated to many gods, the chief of which were the three in one, al-Lat, al-Uzzah, and al-Manat. Muhammad begins preaching to his people:
(lowered voice) Muhamma is a sacred house built by Abraham the prophet of ONE GOD, the father of Jews, Arabs and Christians. It must be cleansed of man-made idols. Punishment soon comes to those who have refused to hear the word of Allah. Those of you who worship these idols are pagans."
A few close friends of the prophet understood this message but more important it went straight to the heart of the poor people, slaves, belaborers and all the others who were humiliated by the class-conscious merchants of Mecca.
[this video skips the part where Muhammad gave into the demands to believe in goddesses for a time]
Meccans are threatened. They react harshly. Muhammad has discredited their gods and called them pagans, and most of all, he has threatened their pocketbooks. Muhammad says, "A moral life is a life which a man uses his wealth for a just cause, and the wealthy and powerful must give to the poor and oppressed. Man should not marry to more than four wives at the same time and must treat them equally and respectfully. Women have the right to inherit property. The rich must pay taxes to the poor and no one should lend money for profit making."
The Meccans received these messages as threatening ideas. The merchants and the rich men of Mecca whose great source of income was the Ka’aba with its old idols were afraid to lose their benefits. They decided to plot against Muhammad.
[little to say]
Time and time again, openly Muhammad and his followers were harassed. Meccans were afraid to kill Muhammad because of the powerful Quraysh clan who might revenge him, but the increasing harassment had threatened Muhammad’s followers. In addition to these problems, now his wife, Khadijah, dies. Muhammad gathered his followers quietly and told them to leave Mecca. They went and crossed the Red Sea to Abyssinia where the Quraysh clan had been trading for many years. This was the first Muslim community outside the Arabian peninsula.
Lonely and sad, Muhammad prays to his god in Ka’aba. Suddenly, the arch angel Gabriel appeared again, took him up, gently placed him on the wing of a fabulous creature, among other angels flew him to Jerusalem and then lifted him up into the 7th heaven, where Muhammad spoke to the past prophets, Abraham, Noah, Moses and Jesus. The angels brought him back to Ka’aba where Muhammad proved the truth of messages of other prophets.
[Did I miss the part about "Muslims believe" again? How did Muhammad prove anything?]
But Mecca was busy plotting against Muhammad and each tribe took part in a conspiracy to kill Muhammad and his followers. It was a time for yearly pilgrimage to Mecca.
Yathrib, an oasis 200 miles to the north had already heard of Muhammad’s messages of brotherhood. They decided to send a delegation to Mecca as pilgrims but secretly they must meet with Muhammad and invite him and his followers to their town.
The delegation met with him secretly. Meccan conspirators became aware of these and set the time for action for the next day, but they were too late. Muhammad and his followers slipped away from Mecca, under the veil of moonless night. Mounting camels, they embarked for the oasis of Yathrib.
This immigration which is called in Arabic, hijrah, starts the first year of the Muslim calendar. It took Muhammad and his followers several days to reach the safety of Yathrib. They had traveled fast, avoiding the main caravan route and water wells.
[no comment]
People of Yathrib were alerted of his coming, a small band of Muslim converts living at the Oasis were waiting for him. When Muhammad arrived there, they shouted, "He has come, he has come!" Tears stinging their cheeks. They offered him their homes but Muhammad said, "God will guide my camel to a chosen spot." His camel stopped and kneeled near a small bar. Here Muhammad with his own hands with the help of his followers built the worlds first Mosque. From then on the oasis at Yathrib became known to the world as Medina, an-Nabi, city of the prophet or simply, Medina.
Around the extraordinary personality of Muhammad, the small Muslim community began to flourish and became a political force. Muhammad marries and has children. The revelation continued and was written down. These revelations form the Quran, the Muslim holy book. (call to prayer in background) Now the Quran sets the guidelines on the practical matters such as taxes, trades, marriage, divorce and military matters, and details how a Muslim should conduct his prayers.
[The revelation continued? Nothing about "Muslims believe?" Again, if anything Christian was presented like this...]
pause, call to prayer
Allah commands Muhammad to make a war against non-believers. The first target was the annual caravan moving south from Damascus, a thousand camels full of goods. The Meccan merchants were forewarned of the Muslim plans and they rushed in reinforcements to defend the caravan.
At the walls of (ba-ter-ed) near the Red Sea coast, they surprised Muhammad’s army of three hundred. Muhammad shouted, "All who die today will enter paradise." Outnumbered three to one, the Muslims fought bravely and fiercely and triumphed.
A year later at Mount Uhud near Medina, the Meccans retaliated. History records 27 raids. Slowly by treaty and skirmish, Muhammad converted the Bedouin tribes of the surrounding desert, mastering their swords to the cause of Islam. After almost two decades, Muhammad the prophet re-entered his native city Mecca, now leading an army of 10,000. Meccan was surrendered without a fight. The prophet walked to the Ka’aba, touched the black stone and made the proscribed 7 circuits. He ordered to smash the idols. He declared a general amnesty and Meccans swore allegiance to the prophet of God.
[have our children accepted Muhammad as a "prophet of God"? They present 27 raids as retaliations from the Meccans...what about all the slaughters Muhammad LED?]
Mecca joins Islam and Ka’aba becomes the holy shrine of Islam. In respecting the Ka’aba, Muhammad avoided hurting the feelings of his compatriots of Mecca. The old forms of pilgrimage were kept but quietly changed. Within two years much of Arabia was united under the banner of Islam, but the prophets mission was nearing its end. Back in Medina he fell ill, weeping in each passing day and finally on June 8th, 632, in the arms of his favorite wife Aisha, Muhammad whispered his last devotions, then peacefully surrendered to Allah’s will.
[How did he surrender to Allah’s will when our school officials claim to be secular?]
Aisha’s father, Abu-Bakra, gave the news of his death, "Men, may all those who knew Muhammad learn that he is dead. May all those who worship the god of Muhammad know that he is alive and immortal."
The one and only God is the God of Biblical tradition. Muslims believe in God in what has been revealed in Abraham, in Ishmael, in Isaac, in Jacob, in what was given to Moses, in Jesus, in what was given to the prophets on the part of the Lord.
[This is most aggravating. "Peaceful" Islam claims Allah is our god, yet Muhammad killed Christians and Jews because we would not bow to Allah or accept Muhammad as "the prophet."]
Muhammad always said that Abraham, Moses and Jesus were his predecessors. The Quran is quite clear about Jesus by denying him the divine nature. It is this which divides Islam from Christianity with their faith in Jesus Christ, the only son of God born at the beginning of the world. In effect, through the Quran, God says, "God cannot be penetrated. He has no offspring. He has no father, NONE is equal to him."
[I was honestly surprised they said Jesus is the only son of God...even though they made it clear the Qur’an disputes it. Jesus as the Son of God is the cornerstone of Christianity, this is not something that can be dismissed. They qualified it as our belief...something they didn’t do throughout this whole video glorifying Allah]
The Muslim community deeply believes that everything that is taking place is the divine will and is best for the community. Destiny, after all, is in the hands of Allah, and every Muslim will be fulfilled of his expectation by God, even if this fulfillment is deferred to the day of judgment. The way Muslims think of themselves, the way they interpret the meaning of life, is the fact that human beings are created like everything else in the universe, by force, which neither they understand nor control. Men come into existence and pass away not by their own choice and decision, but by an overwhelming power beyond their comprehension.
[finally, a qualifier... "Muslim community deeply believes..." But then they follow with the explanation, "Destiny, after all, is in the hands of Allah...]
video pause for Muslim prayers in Arabic
(Slow determined voice: )"I bear witness that there is no God but Allah and I bear witness that Muhammad is the servant and apostle of Allah."